Constantly in our Christian life when the gospel is exposed to us, we hear that we have sinned against God. Be in one aspect or another, when the truth of the Scriptures is preached to us, we are confronted with sins that we know are in our inmost hearts and that we practice daily. We hear about pride, greed, laziness, lasciviousness, idolatry, among others, and as true believers, we recognize our weakness before the enslaving power of sin.
However, how do we act with that knowledge? To each cult, in the moments of confession of sins, we are invited to reflect on our attitudes, thoughts and motivations and to probe our hearts to identify what we have failed. Repent, we ask the Lord for forgiveness, and then? How has our daily struggle against resistant sins been? With what attitude have we handled with them? Who or what have we sought to help us? What have been the fruits of our repentance?
The struggle against sin is constant and tireless. The apostle Paul compared the Christian walk as the life of an athlete, who spends most of his time dedicating himself to perfecting his gifts to achieve his goals and recognition. For this, it is necessary a lot of focus, dedication and sacrifices, as well as the Christian's search for sanctification.
"Do not you know that those who run in the stadium, all, in reality, run, but one only takes the prize? Run in such a way that you reach it." And everyone who fights everything abstains, they do it to achieve a corruptible crown, we, however, incorruptible, because I run like this, not like the uncertain thing, so I fight, not like hitting in the air, before I strike my body, and reduce to servitude, that preaches to others, I myself will not be eliminated in any way "
1 Corinthians 9: 24-27
The struggle of every believer for sanctification is never vain or "uncertain", quite the contrary. The Scriptures teach us that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him (Hebrews 11: 6). If athletes dedicate themselves as much to an award bestowed by men, as perishable as their own bodies, what would they do then to attain eternal glory with Christ? Or better, what do we, by their example, do?
Although we know that salvation is not conquered by us, but only by the blood of Christ, we are called to live a life of sanctification on this earth and to become holy as He is Holy (1 Peter 1:16). Then, we continue towards an objective, towards the reach of an eternal crown. For this, there are always sacrifices required in the way, as to follow Christ in a holy life, we are necessarily called to "deny ourselves" (Matthew 16:24), since our nature is in itself sinful (Matthew 15:24). : 16-20). If even the apostle Paul, in a privileged way with knowledge and revelation, had to subdue his body, reduce it to servitude, and "captivate bring the whole mind of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10: 5), how does he exempt us from such mortification of sin?
John Owen, in his book "Mortification of Sin", says: "Morificarque, make mortification your daily endeavor, always occupy it while you live, do not interrupt that work for a single day, worry about killing sin, The fact of being practically dead in Christ and having been vivified with him is no excuse to avoid that work. "
The fear of God
Many times our tendency is to underestimate our ability to sin against God. In the same way, we underestimate the power of God in judging and condemning our sinful practices. We exalt so much the goodness and mercy of God, and we forget that his justice is also part of his attributes. This attitude shows a lack of fear of the Lord and knowledge of his character. The regenerated man must not only love God in obedience to his Word (John 14:15), but also fear him, revere him and exalt him as a sovereign being above all things. He is the righteous judge who will go against all sin (Psalm 7:11).
To what extent are we mistaken in neglecting the struggle against our sins? We can not say with all the words that we are good, holy, obedient servants, but when we speak, think or act as if that were true, we feed deceit and pride in our hearts. When we do not practice the mortification of sin, we stop conceiving it with bitterness. He becomes sweet and we consume it with total naturalness. John Owen says that this is to come "to the edge of the abyss of transforming the grace of God into lasciviousness and of being hardened by the ingenuity of sin." (P. 46). In other words, destitute of the fear of the Lord and filled with a sense of self-righteousness, we become insensitive and hardened by sin.
The fear of the Lord impels us to seek a life of holiness, to be more intolerant of our sins and to always examine our motivations. In the end, we serve a Holy God, who is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29).
The Encouraging Grace of God
We know that while we are on that earth, the nature of sin will remain in us and we will never stop sinning completely against the Lord. However, we also know that this is not an excuse to sin. The grace of God is renewed in our lives, producing repentance, generating sanctification and transformation progressively.<7div>
Through prayer and meditation in the Scriptures, God gives us the strength to fight against all opposition in our hearts. It is enough to seek the Lord all the elements of combat in the fight against sin (Ephesians 6: 10-20) and commit ourselves constantly to live in obedience to his commandments. John Owen warns us: "Let no one think that he is making any progress in holiness if he does not trample on the lusts of sin, whoever does not kill him in that way will not make progress in his Christian journey." Who is not aware of the opposition of sin, he does not dedicate himself to mortifying him, he ends up making peace with him and does not die for sin "(p 43-44).
When we align ourselves with sin, we become enemies of God (James 4: 4), and communion is compromised. Therefore, let us be intolerant of sin, we do not give place to the flesh, let us not speak with pride, let us not make our mind a den of impurities, do not feed a heart desirous of evil. Before, let us dedicate ourselves to developing our salvation with all fear and trembling before God (Philippians 2:12). And may the grace of our Lord Jesus be with us.